^ 1/09 .UJ1 .107 TS 1109 .W7 Copy 1 The Creative Workman An Address Delivered Before The Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry at the Spring Meeting, held at Dayton, Ohio, May 16, 1918 By ROBERT B. WOLF, Manager, Spanish River Pulp and Paper Mills, Ltd. Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry 117 East Twenty-fourth Street New York 1918 0^ i 5 7i The Creative Workman Use of Individual Progress Records as a Means of Making Work Interesting and Enjoyable By ROBERT B. WOLF Manager, Spanish River Pulp and Paper Mills, Ltd., Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. ODERN industry has to a great extent made life in our large manufacturing plant.-, almost unbearably mechanical. As a result, the workmen are in many cases in open rebellion against the en- tire system. The trouble arises clear- ly from a lack of realization of what human life is for. Therefore, an ana- lysis of the qualities in work which attract or repel us would surely be most helpful and, if carried far enough should reveal something of the meaning of life and of the individual's relationship to his whole environment. The success we have had in making the work of our paper machines interesting and therefore attractive to our machine operators will, I feel sure, prove helpful to others who are endeavoring to solve the individual problem. At any rate, it is a great pleasure to us to see how our men are beginning to enjoy work which, before the introduction of progress records, was not particularly attractive. The philosophy underlying our experience is, of course, not in any sense confined to the paper industry, and from previous experience T know can be widely extended. No philosophy of life, however, is valuable, unless it is capable of practical application, so I hope the illustrations which follow will prove to lie of real value as a concrete demonstration of the principles invoked. The development of this philosophy was based upon results obtained in The Burgess Sulphite Fibre Com- pany's mills at Berlin, X. H. There we were making sulphite pulp with its accompanying by-products, and had recorded almost all the operations in the process. We had, however, no experience in that plant with the recording of operations on paper machines, so when we started our work at the Sturgeon Falls plant of The Spanish River Co., we decided to undertake this investigation, especially as we were having con- siderable trouble with uneven weights of paper. We determined to go at this problem from the quality basis, as our experience at the "Burgess" plant had been that the quality records were the most important. Quantity records we found usually tended to make hard feeling among the men, as many of you have probably observed, where one machine crew disputes with another because of a difference of opinion as to who should be credited with a roll at the end of the shift. 1 found that the international officers of the Paper Makers Union felt very much the same way about it and were inclined to be instinctively opposed to the posting of production records. Quality records, however, are of a different nature, as they bring into play the reasoning, thinking power of man much more than quantity records: the latter reflect the physical side of his nature rather than the intellectual side. Wherever the competition is on a quality basis, co- operation results, and cooperation of this nature does not diminish the spirit of emulation but on the con- trary tends to strengthen it. Before referring to the illustrations which show in concrete form our results, I believe it will be helpful to review our general philosophy of management, f sincerely hope what I say will lie looked upon as simply my own interpretation of the facts as we have observed them, and even though 1 maj seem to be dogmatic at times, that you will be indulgent and consider this as possibly an inherent defect of any individual interpretation of a vital process. I feel that our experiences stand oul only as so many isolated and disconnected fragments unless we are able to con- nect them by a process of reflection into a philosophical concept. It is this concept of a law or principle which we can pass on to others, ami it is useful in propor- tion as it is practical. If it does not fit into the general scheme of life it is not worth our serious con- sideration. < >n the other hand, if it does prove its practical value, its presentation adds something to the sum total of human happiness. It is with this thought in mind, therefore, that T am taking the liberty of weaving a philosophy of management around the con- crete facts of our paper machine operations. The basic principle of our philosophy is that a man must be interested in his work in order to get good results. If he is not interested, he will not do his best. He is simply in this case reacting to ex- ternally applied force or stimulation, and is doing his work more because he is compelled to do it. from fear of either losing his job or being penalized in some way. A man in this frame of mind cannot do his best work- and will really do as little as possible. If the work is interesting, however, he works "from within out" as it were, because he desires to do so and not because someone is all the time "following him up." This type of worker is what we call the creative type and a plant is successful in direct proportion to the number of men that it has of this type. Ts the discontent and restlessness in and around our great over-specialized industrial plants fin spite of their so called welfare work) not due to the fact that the creative impulse of the worker has no chance to develop in them? Efficiency it seems to me has too often been made an end in itself to be attained at all costs regardless of individual wellbeing. In many of our mills and factories men are used simpb telligent machines and are given no opportunity to use their thinking powers. Regardless of how seeminglv well operated a plant of this kind may be, how ran it even approach a maximum of good results if g cent of its employees are not permitted to use their brains in their work"'' Does this form of industrialism differ very materially from that of the older mediaev d form of industrial slavery which Germany has so efficiently brought up to date? Tt is no accident that practically the entire working world is willing to make untold sacrifices to crush out (his giant organization which seeks to dominate by repression, and it seems to me that the only way that .avoid a deadlock in this present war is to concentrate our efforts to organize without repression and remove from the face of the earth forever the pernicious doctrine of the "divine right of kings." This war has THE CREATIVE WORKMAN been called an industrial war — a war of machine power. If this is so, how long can Germany hold out when she is using only about 5 percent of her people in creative work? If we have the intelligence to organize our industries so that ten limes this percent- age are using their brains, we can set in motion such intensely powerful forces that the German machine will be absolutely unable to withstand them. Can this be done? I believe our experiences show that if granted their undeniable right to work intelligently, even a larger percentage than the 50 percent suggested above will do creative work. As an indication of the low percentage of creative power used by the Germans, 1 will cite two industries which are typical. Over two years ago one of the directors of a great transatlantic steamship corpora- tion told me that in twenty years to his own knowledge no basic invention in shipbuilding had come out of Germany. They have analyzed and refined what others have created but that is all. The same is true in the steel and iron industry, so I was informed a few days ago by the head of one of America's greatest steel corporations. We recognize in our work three fields of operation. The FIRST we may call the "field of nature," and such sciences as chemistry, physics and mechanics re- cord the operations in this field. All that these sciences do is to organize the observed facts in the physical world and by means of this organization re- cord the laws of the various physical elements which make up the raw materials. The laws of the raw ma- terials and the effects of the various manufacturing processes upon these raw materials must be recorded if we are properly to enlist into the service what we recognize as the SECOND great field of industrial operation, namely, "the will of man." The realm of so called "exact science," does not ex- tend to this field. It is only in proportion as we are able to give to man the greatest possible amount of knowl- edge of the first field and to create conditions where he can use this knowledge in constructive, imaginative work, that good results are obtained. It is begin- ning to be recognized today that we cannot drive men to do work against their will and obtain anything like the best operating conditions in our plants. The thing that a man does unwillingly he is not interested in and will not do well ; neither will he do good work if he is indifferent as to whether the work is well per- formed or not. The problem is how to produce a de- sire upon the part of the workman to do the work for its own sake. Our experience has shown that this can be done when conditions in the plant permit him to use the creative power of his intellect and thereby become the conscious director of the natural forces that he is using. It is not only necessary, however, to give this originating, choosing and adapting power of the intellect a chance to operate, but if we are to invoke it to the greatest degree, we must record — in- sofar as it is practical — each man's progress. The pro- gress record, as indicated by the score, is the thing which makes a game interesting and the pleasure we derive from a game comes largely from the conscious- ness that we are matching our own intelligence against the other man's intelligence. It is for this reason that in quality records we get, exactly as we do in games, a spirit of fair play and friendly competition, rather than the hard unfriendly feeling which comes when the rec- ords are mainly those of production or quantity only. The THIRD field has to do with the "spirit of unity" in the organization which men call esprit de corps. It is invoked largely through teaching each man his part in the organization by enabling him to become conscious of the effect of his acts upon every other part of the organization. It is not enough to teach a man his own work well and to create an en- vironment in which he can obtain the best results on his own job, but he should realize the effect of his work on every part of the organization and, therefore, his relationship to the whole. It is, of course, largely the function of the executive branch consciously to develop this spirit of unity, but this spirit must be developed if the best results are to be obtained. In Philadelphia a few days ago, I heard the head of one of our large shipbuilding corporations, when asked how he got such splendid results in his plant, reply that 80 percent of the results were due to the spirit of. the men. He added, however, that this spirit is largely emotional and therefore apt to change sud- denly. It is this very spirit of enthusiasm which, if properly directed, overcomes all obstacles, and the great problem in management is how to develop it rationally ami in constantly increasing proportion. What I hope to point out to you today is that if we are to perpetuate this spirit, it will be by showing how these strong emotions can be controlled by the mind through the use of the intellect and that if we intelligently build up in our plants man)' individual progress records, which not only inform each man of his own progress but also of the effect of his work on others working with him, we will have something tangible which men can recog- nize as the result of their unfolding spiritual conscious- ness, which is the mainspring of every one's activity. I do not mean by this that all of our activity should be purely intellectual, but that by the use of the in- tellect we must learn to control our emotions if the great power stored up in the emotional nature is to be used in constructive work for the advance- ment of the human race. Instead of poking fun at anything intellectual, why not get over this prejudice by recognizing the intellect as simply the instrument used by the mind ? What we all do is simply to select from our outer experiences (the field of our activity) what it is we wish to leave our impression upon : then by the use of our intelligence (intellect) we make up our minds what course to follow. This is no "high brow stunt." but just plain commonsense. It is necessary, if an industry is to make genuine progress, that a real science of the industry be built up. So far we have been very largely concerned with the art of making paper and not with the science. I am afraid that we have forgotten that we can only have a great art where the organized facts, which re- cord the science, are so complete and comprehensive that the individual who wishes to express this art can master the laws as recorded in the science. As it has been so well expressed by A. F. Sheldon, "Sci- ence is organized facts," and "Art is a science prac- tised," so that unless we can organize the facts under- lying the industry — the chemistry, physics and me- chanics of the process — it will be impossible for the men in the industry properly to express the art. The art, however, must be expressed not only through the emotions but also by the mind through the use of the intellect. Ts not the reason it has taken so long to learn a trade, in the great majority of cases, that there is no science of the trade where a man can study the natural "' ,1 i8» THE CREATIVE WORKMAN REEL RECORD MACHINE NO. MACHINE TEND ££NN£TT T,« BEEL U-.FO—T, ,.„„ | „ I ,„,0, S ...L. S roT»L»»«,OHT ........... k.cc»t«oi.tu..| .«..«....■. ; '«"". Zl\- 2 1 1 4 1 • .... j .... ... ' a*± 1 jo-^- 13-CVOS.7S SO.O S'OO oTO -7 3 6/ 6 6 7 6 7 6 5 37 3S 34 3S 35- 3S aa? 30 a? :.- = 7 00 23 Wo 29 50 62 5 62-75 9 °°. 2 600 6 SO 3 J K ja .re 3i 3-0 3/>0P 3 73 7 3/. SO 3 3 33 62 \a3 3/ 74.0 72 4.0 62.0 a 3 .9 4 s 7.2 700 o 7 #2 5 8/2 4-1 ■70 S3 38 73 36 70 o 4/ 93° 5 /OO. £5.0 :.9 00 30 go agoo 37 06 asoo 3 2 5 66.0 790.0 63. 3 5 7 6 7 ., 7 6-7 OO g 7.0 6oo 222 S 742 30 3' 3f 37 705 35 93 \oa OP /0& 4 3. 1 ^.-' Z9.00 30.73 29 /22 J-6.0 6 e •■■3 7 9 5.9 £ 6 S b 7 47 5 2 70.0 675 3? 37 30 """" 1750 F " - '' 9/ 30 73 2-76.0 e/.s- /3S 35 //<* 5 70 9o>o 80.0 5/ 7 J" 30.737 esza: S CO . 37 1/7 7S4 08 36 32 34.0 C.J 5.9 e.s 47- S- 3/7 S 63.3- -33 32. 37 /70 34 33 00 66.0 .,-.? 37 7 //££ 6 soo #0 es.o 3AgJ j/ as 333-0 37 77 39 oo 37 \S~0 SAA 422-0 70. 3 7 C 6.6 6 ' 33 S 6 5 S2:S 370 O 6/ 7 36 34 7 : 33 73 7 7 30.00 aSSo 37 00 3_7 S3 2/7 '4/ 96 74.0 7 a i 7 7-7 46. B. 85 . u. motRisi nscoRr „ i r ■ '— « p„„. » 1 1 [ -1-1- MUM SX/ ax^ | - — J , i •i """""• 60.0 sf7 — _ = _^_^ :/ .. 1 1 i - » 1 ! i i .. j ! „ : 1 1 1 '»•■' |^i?.2 | 76-.^ I "•"»» / Z 3 K. 9/."\ V : ■- / ' -= H „ r t - — - 7 THE CREATIVE WORKMAN chart sheet marked "Moisture Test." This, of course, proved to be a wonderful help to the back tender, whiise work it is to regulate the steam pressure on the drying cylinders. I'.efore this plan to give the exact moisture test was put into execution, the only way the backtender could tell anything about the sture content of the sheet was to "feel" it as it passed from the calendar stack to the reel. Of course, nu record of this "feel" could be made to enable the backtender In tell how well his work was being done, SO there was no particular reason why he should be interested in this part of his work. It is only the exceptional man who has imagination enough to cre- ate within himself a consciousness of his progress. Now this brings me to the "Weight Record" and "Moisture Record" columns. Our view is that every man is entitled to know how well he is doing his work and that it is one of the great moral obligations of the management to furnish him with a means of re- cording his progress. Aside from the satisfaction it gives the workman it is also a means of eliminating favoritism from the plant, for each man's record speaks for itself. The modern industrial plant with its specialization of functions, where each man does only a fractional part of an operation, no longer al- lows the operator to leave the impress of his person- ality upon the work itself. In the old days when the workman made the complete finished article, it liter- ally reflected his individuality, and being a creation of his own mind, he found joy in its production. The desire for self-expression, which is the most funda- mental instinct in life, had been gratified through the creation of the article produced. We must either accept the illogical premise that the combining of men into large industrial production units is contrary to the natural law of life, or we must squarely face the fact that this creative instinct, which the old order satisfied, must be permitted in the new. At first sight this may seem hopeless, but on further examination w r e find this not at all to be the case. On the contrary, because of the wonderful advance of mod- ern science which has increased the reasoning power of the human mind to a marvelous extent there is vastly more opportunity for the individual to do cre- ative work. We must, however, begin to study the problem with an earnest desire to solve it, for its solu- tion is the most pressing and vital question before the civilized world today. It is with the hope that these examples will help point a way toward the solution of this problem, that I am offering them to you for your consideration. My attention was called in a striking manner to the increasing interest taken in the problem by the public generally when in Washington a few days ago. While waiting for a trolley on Pennsylvania avenue a policeman, waiting for the same car, remarked to me that the Capitol was a lively place just now; to which I assented, saying it was perhaps a good thing lo wake up the old crowd a bit. This apparently met with his approval, for he admitted that the government employees really took little interest in their work. Upon asking him for his explanation of this, he said — and I am giving it as nearly as I can in his own words — "The reason is. that they don't have a chance to ex- press their individuality in the work, so it doesn't in- terest them." T mention this incident to call attention to the cir- cumstance that a great many men are thinking along these lines, and even the policeman is becoming a philosopher. Man never creates matter or force, but he does through his conscious mind create conditions for the expansion and control of these great primary universal energies, and this creative function has as its instru- ment the originating, choosing and adapting faculty of the human intellect. Suppress, or rather misdirect it — for it cannot be suppressed — as we are so unthink- ingly doing in the world of modern industry, and we are simply turning the "will of man" into forces of disintegration, which will eventually destroy society. The only remedy is so to reorganize our business and social systems that the creative power residing in the "will" can becoine constructive and therefore coopera- tive with the great natural laws of evolution. The trouble with the average employer is that he has been so engrossed in the task of creating an effi- cient organization to express his ozvn individuality that he has entirely overlooked the fact that in the creation of this thing he has forgotten to extend the same privilege to his employees. If he only stops to think of it he will recognize at once that he cannot hope to get the initiative of the workman except by giving him a similar privilege of seeing his own creations grow, either by leaving the impress of his personality upon the article produced or upon the progress record of his work. The workman has combined against the employer in order to obtain the freedom which he sees steadily being taken away from him, as industry tends more and more to make automatons of men ; and the unfor- tunate part of it all is that he has accepted in all too many cases the premise that this tendency is logical and, therefore, inevitable. The ideal of some labor leaders inclining toward the socialistic philosophy is that man should be able to pro- duce in a few hours each day all he needs to support himself and his family, and will then have the rest of the day to do as he pleases. This idea has been strengthened undoubtedly by the workmen seeing men who apparently do little or no productive work, profit out of all proportion to their efforts. 1 >oes the remedy not lie in, first, correct- ing the laws which create special privilege; and, second, in making our economic teaching conform to the universal law of compensation? It can be made plain to all that a man cannot safely consume more than he produces, for the law of the conservation of energy is as exact in its operation in the field of economics as it is in physics. I see no reason why these basic facts of economy cannot be taught by analog}' to every one. When they are understood, men will concentrate their organized efforts upon creating an environment which will make work a joyous thing and stop trying to get away from it as so many are now doing. The question of pro- ducing what we need for the full enjoyment of life will then be a long way toward being solved. For we will then make the work by means of which we earn our livelihood, a source of joy and inspiration. The illustrations will. I hope, give you a hint of how this can be accomplished, even as industry in the main is today constituted. Does not the reason that the average employer is opposed to labor unions lie in the fact that he is afraid that the restrictions which he thinks the unions seek lo impose will take away his own opportunity for self- expression by preventing him from working out his S THE CREATIVE WORKMAN /y?oy /o ,., a n — i ""- "•"-• as. 3 883 97.3 99. Z ^. 8/-/ 86 a. -4- -4^ 5" — - = •>• — (— — „ - L - ,.,., 89 2 392 Lou.. a - -? J- 6 7 \ . L — "" — " F Ty=* r~^~ . _»._ 3= — (— iuhin. T..OM r^r^LOrt - May /O ,..<9 — ..OGRESS .ECO.D _!=_ ,..-. ... .„,„ "-"' ^O .90.5 » ^ 2 ^ i> " - =r ^ - = c^OTW*V^ k^^C2 \a-?.s *• "»'■' ! ,9n a period average rather than the day's aver age is that it tends toward greater continuity of ef- fort, which is a source of much greater satisfaction to the workman. It is the steady progress that really counts and not the spasmodic, spectacular high record for any one day. The record, to give joy to the ivorker, must reflect the constant, steady inner urge which indicates flic degree of his mastery of the forces lie controls in the day's :eork. The improvement in the records from < )ctober 16 (made about a week after the recording commenced) to November 27 is very noticeable. The records of May 10, however, show- how completely the men be- came the masters of the machine. From the first three records (of ( (ctober 16) it is evident that the machine was more mi less controlling the nun win. really formed a part of it. In the last three records ( of May 01). however, the machine was completely under con- trol and was literally an instrument for expressing tin- degree of the man's mastery of the science and art "i making paper. The difference is enormous! The three sets of records of the same machines, and machine crews, on three different dates show the actual results obtained, and I would like to call your attention to the last three of .May 10. (See Plate IV I. You "ill note that while at first there was quite a ij difference between the men, that on May 10 tin- records were 89.2, 88.9 and 88.0 respectively. This shows very clearly that the spirit of friendly ri- valry and competition will increase rather than dimin- ish, if only the progress records are made interest- 1 do reflect the quality of the work. The old idea thai competition in e of making money is the mainspring of every man's activity, is passing "ill, lor we are realizing that the possessive instinct which economists over emphasized in the past is giv- ing place to the creative instinct. Competition from the purely moneymaking sense is not the life of trade, but rather the reverse. Me do not pay a man more money for a good rec- ord but pay the prevailing union scale for all posi- tions in our plants. These are adjusted each spring by joint conferences with our men. In this way we keep a proper wage balance between the different classes of work in proportion to the skill required and as a consequence avoid all the innumerable dif- ficulties which confront the piece work system, task and bonus plan and all other direct payment methods. It is often argued that it is not right to pay a good man the same rate as a poor man and to this I ab- solutely agree, but the fact is that when these progress records are furnished to men, all men in a certain operating class finally come to be practically equal in performance and the differences will be only between the amount of skill required in each different class of work and in these classes there is a difference in com- pensation. Proof of this statement is brought out by the three records of May 10; but for those who do not wish to take so few examples as conclusive, 1 would like to say that it has been my experience that invariably the competition is keen enough on all qual- ity records to bring nearly all men, (who have been at the work a sufficient length of time to become ex- pert) practically to the same degree of proficiency. Every organization should encourage its employees to progress from one class to another, so as to have as many "all-round" men in its employ as possible, and it has been our experience that you can practical- ly always convince a man who asks for more than his particular job is worth, that the way to get more pay is so to master his own job that he can be pro moted to a higher class. Men have confidence in a company where promotion from the ranks is the rule. Perhaps some principle of paying men an increase of a certain amount per hour for each month's con tinuous service can be worked out between certain maximum and minimum rates. A man would then start in at a fixed minimum per hour and advance au- tomatically to a maximum rate representing the value of his particular occupation as decided upon in joint conference between the employer and employee. This principle is not new in unionism, and is even now op- erative in some trades. You will notice that on the record of Mav 10 there appears a "uniformity record" which was not on the records of ( Ictober 10 ami November 27 (although for the sake of explaining its method of computation it was shown on the large record sheet). This was added because the machine tenders themselves wanted us to find some way of measuring how near they came to having the weight across the sheet uniform. The third column marked "Uniformity Record" (Plate 1) previously referred to, shows how this record is kept. It will be noticed that the three weights are 30.75, 29. and 28.75 lne front, middle and back of the sheet, respectively. In obtaining this uniformity record, we take the middle weight as the normal, to which the other two are referred, and for each % lb from the normal (not average) we take off 10 points. In this ease 29 happens to be normal, therefore. 30 90 -'8-75 Total. . 120 Average 60 THE CREATIVE WORKMAN You will notice we have kept a number of other lines in the progress record attached to the charts. We did this realizing we would be sure to have re- quests from our men for other factors which they would like recorded, and while we have not had time to work them out as yet, we have already had a number of suggestions. We find that the greater number of factors or laws that we record, the greater and that we should find some way of recording the thickness at these points. We found that to do this we had to increase the amount of agit; n in the pulp storage tanks, and as a result are making some radical improvements which will tend to produce greater uni- formity throughout the entire process. Right here it might be well to call attention to the fact that our experience has been that men do not have to be stimu Form M-l. BACK TENDERS MOISTURE RECOR- n*t.« A/ 01/ .30, IS/7 No. \ Machine. 1 . ' Us chins . Name Moisture Progre&e. Record. Name Moisture Progress Record. Day Day Da; v ■ {JoaN/s 78 7.7 34.1 94,a FRENCH 77 7.3 QZ7 33.1 M c Clelland 8.6 78 szz 83.8 Andrews 74 7& 81B Sag BEAunoi N W.8 7.S 8d.S 33.3 T^LLON 74 7.2 m? m\ a small 2 inch direct connected blower to the brick chamber underneath the oven. In this w.,\ ;i slight air pres iii' 1 always maintained on the 11 n.. damp air from the machine room can enter tin: oven through the iround the doors. An outlet 011 the brick chambci allows for readings with wet and dr> bulb thermometers to indicate when the quick lime has been spent in its absorbing The above air-drying apparatus was installed at only one of the plants and Usis are being made with it to determine whether it is necessary to employ such an apparatus. 'Iln pi linl is in 'l 3 et fully determined. (At this point a slide showing tin - ab was thrown on the screen.) Mr. Klund— With a system of this kind based on the rec- thi individual machines, do you find that an\ jealousy ' .1 -. between lenders of machines that may be 1 ■ I ■ bj side? In our own mill the lenders of adjoining machine are < \ pi ep ,1 to ,i^-:st each othi r in case of trouble. Mr. Wolf I can onlj givi you the results of our ai pern 111 e \\ 1 nevei have any of these jealousies which cause hard feelings when the records are on a quality basis. I be- lieve, as I have said before, thai quality stimulates the intel- lect, whereas quantity does the physical or lower animal na- ture. A man instinctively begin in realize that only as he cooperates with his fellow man can he have the greatest pos- sible amount ol freedom for In-, individual development. This conception comes to him through the use of his intel- lect and for this very reason the quality records which stim ulate the intellectual faculties are bound to produce in him .1 larger social eon-. him less selfish and more anxious to coopi 1 1 r way for the bene- fit of the whole. When the man in the groundwood mill be- comes conscious of the troubb be is 1 ausing a man in the beater room if be doesn't run his stock uniformly, he nat- urally is more careful, especiallj ii the 'are that he exerciser- is being recorded for him in the progress record. This is also true of the man in the heater room when he becomes conscious of th, effect of his work upon the machinetender. A spirit of unfriendly rivalry simph cannot exist in a plant where the "will of man'' is operating in this eon scion- manner. (This brought the discussion of Mr Wolf's paper to a close, and after making a Fi ling reg- istering, etc., Chairman Carruth called upon George F. Wil- liamson to present his paper on "Modern Meth ids in a Pa per Mill Boiler Plant." DISCUSSION of BOILER PLAN! METHODS The following discussion of Mr ensued : (The text of Mr. Williams,,, per for May 22, 1918.) Mi; Kkfss — The gentleman win, u.i to open the di asked me to take his place. Tie re is hardl} anything that I can add, and I would like to sa\ dial Mr. Williamson's paper is now open for discussion. J. II. Wright— In getting youi records of CO you employ a recorder? Mr. Williamson — We do not an old style recorder, which became a nuisance. now an ordinary baud sampler and collector, and we have pipes running from each boiler uptake to our control board Williams, ,11's paper, then papi r v, ill In 1. niilil ill Pa- ^ases, do We had W'« have 15 Copyright, 1918, by Paper, Inc., New York [Reprinted from Paper, July -'4, 1918, issue) The Yellowing of Paper A Study of the Causes or Principal Factors Producing the Yellowing of Paper By ALFRED B. HITCHINS, Ph.D., F.C.S., F.R.M.S. NUMBER of experiments have been carried out to determine the causes or principal factors bringing about the yellowing of paper. In this work handmade sheets were used, made from the finest picked white rags, and the chemicals used were all of c. p. quality, tested carefully for impuri- ties and where necessary further pur- ified. Particular care was also taken in the bleaching and washing of the stock, as it was realized that this in itself might have an influence on the yellowing of papers. The sheets were subjected to three test condi- tions. Test No. 1 — Exposure to arc light for one hour to 100 hours. Samples withdrawn at 10-hour intervals. Test No. 2 — Exposure to moist heat, 90 Cent, in a constant temperature oven in total darkness for 1 to 100 hours. Samples withdrawn every 10 hours. Test No. 3 — Exposure to dry heat 90 ° Cent., heated in a constant temperature oven in total darkness from 1 to 100 hours. Samples withdrawn every 10 hours. It was thought desirable that as much as possible, only one side of the sheet should be acted upon, so the samples intended for exposure to light were sealed down to an opaque backing, and the sheets intended for exposure to heat were sealed down to thin as- bestos boards. No filler was used for any of the ex- perimental sheets. In this investigation the yellowing of paper due to the fading of dyes or the presence of woodpulp is not considered, all the sheets having been made without any dye. For the charts used to illustrate the data obtained, the following nomenclature has been adopted : The ordinates headed Y° are degrees of yellowing. The abscissae represent hours of exposure. The lettering of the curves — A, B and C correspond to tests Nos. 1, 2 and 3 — vie: light, moist heat and dry heat. The degrees of yellowing were measured photometrically by means of a calibrated yellow wedge. The sheets for experiment No. 1 were made with- out size and after subjection to the test conditions showed practically no yellowing. The sheets for No. 2 were prepared with three dif- ferent amounts of rosin — 2]/ 2 percent, 5 percent and 10 percent. The result of the exposure to the test conditions is illustrated in Fig. 1. Evidently the de- gree of yellowing is dependent upon the amount of rosin present. The sheets for experiment No. 3 were prepared with the same amounts of rosin, but with the addition of 1 percent, 2 percent and 4 percent of iron to the alum. The results obtained are shown in Fig. 2. For experiment No. 4, sheets were prepared with the same amounts of rosin and iron with the further addition of z 1 /* percent, 5 percent and 10 percent of gelatin. These results are shown in Fig. 3. The alum used to precipitate the rosin in all cases was iron-free alum, so that the effects of the different amounts of iron added could be observed. A consideration of the results obtained leads to the conclusion that however carefully the paper is pre- pared, the addition of rosin alone as a sizing material will, in the course of time, produce yellowing. Also that the presence of iron is a very important factor. 'Communication from Ansco Research Laboratory. The curves shown in Fig. 2 are all considerably higher where iron is present and the degree of yellowing is more or less proportionate to the amount of iron intro- duced. It is generally conceded that an animal-sized paper will yellow more than one which is free of gelatin The result shown in Fig. 3 where definite amounts of gelatin were added bear this out very thoroughly. As the amount of gelatin is increased, so the degree of yellowing is increased. The form of the curve where gelatin is present is, however, of rather a different character. There is more or less of a tendency for a maximum amount of yellowing to take place within a given time, after which further yellowing is very slow or does not occur at all. It is obvious that light is the most important factor in the yellowing of paper. Next in order of importance is moist heat, and the least active of the three factors is dry heat. It is quite in keeping with theory that light should be the most potent factor in connectic>n with the yellowing of paper. Rosin alone is to some extent sensitive to light, and rosin and iron compounds, are undoubtedly very sensitive to light. The addition of gelatin also increases this sensitiveness to light action. It is possible that the presence of gelatin acts as an organic sensitizer in a manner somewhat analogous to its influence on the formation of a true photographic image. Microscopic sections were cut of the various samples of paper so that it was possible to examine the internal structure. In the case of the paper contain- ing only rosin size, it was found under the action of light that the yellowing produced was only superficial, the interior of the paper being hardly discolored at all. Under the influence of heat the discoloration ex- tended more deeply. In the case where iron was added in known quantities the discoloration pene- trated a little more deeply into the structure and where the paper was gelatin-sized in addition to the rosin and iron, the sheet was almost equally yellowed throughout. This also tends to prove that the gelatin has the power of acting in the manner of an organic sensitizer. A general consideration of the data obtained con- firms the work of Klemm, Zschokke and Schoeller, that the yellowing of paper is due to the formation of rosin-iron compounds, and that the amount of such compounds definitely determines the amount of yel- lowing to be expected. Schoeller has stated that in cases where the size is extracted early from samples so as to remove the yellowing compounds the pa- per will retain its original color. A number of the sample sheets were freed of rosin and subjected to the tests before described, in connection with the sheets made for experiment No. 1 — via. : without size. It was found that the sheet from which the sizing had been removed did not discolor greatly, but did not hold up as well as those which had never been sized at all. The rosin size, even if it is present in the paper only for a short time, undoubtedly has some influence upon the fibers and produces a certain amount of yellowing with time. Where it is necessary that a paper retain its orig- inal color, it is obviously important to use as little rosin size as possible, consistent with the degree of sizing required, and to use always an iron-free alum- inum sulphate as the precipitant. The animal sizing should be omitted or kept as low as possible. PAPER a PL, C JO JC o < CO CO C o Q too c c3 CO CO a a a; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 018 539 209